Relations
by Keynn
Summary: Ise Nanao has always been a mystery. Even to Unohana Restu, who knows her better than she may truly know herself, but Nanao's blinking power and eviction from the eighth has everyone asking questions. Namely her captain and the soitaichou. ShuNa/UkitUnoha
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach**

* * *

><p><strong>Relations (Name Will Probably Change)<strong>

_Shunsui/Nanao and Unohana/Ukitake_

It is only Unohana Retsu who knows how deeply slanted the Gotei 13 is. She knows and she says less than all other shinigami on the subject of relationships among the ranks.

Her captaincy of the fourth insures this knowledge of all shinigami. She knows who is who's sister, who has fathered who's child, and who is the child of someone else. She is a member of the Shinigami Women's Association and hears all gossip of who is dating who, which she does not share, but which prevents her from being entirely shocked when occasionally she meets a patient suffering from something as a result of that relationship. She is meticulously interwoven with every fiber of a shinigami's life through her work, and works equally as hard to insure their privacy outside of the fourth; but what makes her knowledge unique and unmatched is singular and comes only from her acute knowledge of the origins of one eighth division fukutaichou. A knowledge she holds over even the Soutaichou himself.

Fukutaichou of the eighth, Ise Nanao, is Unohana Restu's daughter.

It is on the hush-hush between the four eldest captains that Yamamoto is Unohana's father by blood, with a simple name change to extinguish questions which would have, one day, arisen. It is a relation which landed her in the fourth captaincy to begin with. Her power is old and fierce and anything less than captaincy would be an insult to her efforts, but to say the Soutaichou is not without his faults would be a lie, and it is hard to simply pretend not to care about the possibility of doom one faces in battle.

Strings were pulled with Yamamoto's heavy influence, and to the chagrin of a much younger Retsu, Yamamoto was able to avoid that day-to-day threat by putting her in the only division to deal with the aftermath of such tragedies rather than the tragedies themselves, with the condition that their relationship would also be under wraps, for fear that someone might seek to harm her because of it. This mentality, both knew very well, is what got people killed in times of war, and Retsu was nothing if not immensely intelligent, so she had no choice but to agree. The Soutaichou could not be weak on account of her.

Centuries ago, when Shunsui and Juushiro were just exiting the academy and introducing themselves to the Gotei 13, an organization which Retsu had been a captain in for only slightly longer, the information was so tightly under wraps that one hint and curiosity had prompted Yamamoto's two most favored students to go poking around, and inevitably discover it. It was decided then, that it was not so important to hide the fact, and was determined as an unsaid law that the four of them would simply not speak of it. In plain sight, no one had discovered the secret since.

.

Unohana adjusted the kido she was preforming to sedate Nanao as she ended her treatment, and wondered absently that had Yamamoto not been so adamant of her being the fourth's captain, he would certainly have known by now that he had a granddaughter. No other captain would dare hide such information - not even Shunsui and Juushiro. It was a bit twisted she knew, to put her daughter through the same thing she herself had been subjected to. Unohana had worked diligently and in secret to get the very young girl into the academy, out of the academy and into the only division who's captain she trusted more than any other (based on old chivalrous habits about women and battle, and a decidedly poor attitude toward work) to make sure Nanao did very little in the way of combat. She worked even harder to insure Nanao knew nothing of her parents and Yamamoto knew nothing of her. It was an unfortunate stroke of success on Nanao's part that she'd worked her way up to vice-captaincy, and had been completely unforeseeable to Unohana. She was sure at the time when the young girl had been admitted and Yadomaru Lisa had been fukutaichou that Shunsui would never purpose the test be administered to her, even in adulthood, and had half hoped Nanao might fail it when he eventually did, though she couldn't help feeling proud that she hadn't. Nanao was capable and there was no denying this. Unohana was relieved then, that Shunsui's wounded heart over Lisa's fate had kept the now Fukutaichou Nanao mostly doing administrative work, though all three were well aware it was a waste of her skill. What Retsu hadn't accounted for when this became the new norm was the closeness the heads of a division tended to share.

To discover later that Shunsui had fallen hopelessly in love with Nanao had been an unforeseeable circumstance, as Retsu assumed Nanao would be forever too young for him; and how could Kyoraku Shunsui ever abandon his womanizing ways to pursue someone as straight-laced and so unbelievably different than himself as Nanao was? The saving grace to this was that Nanao didn't know he was serious and was also unwilling to sacrifice her heart to him. Unohana wondered if it would last, but ultimately decided that given the current situation, it didn't much matter anymore.

"How's my Nanao-chan doing, Retsu?" Shunsui murmured, slipping in through the opened door much as he'd been doing all day. He'd brought her in this morning with an insanely high temperature, flaring reiatsu and an unexplainable black-out.

"She will be fine." Unohana stated, not turning away from the young fukutaichou. She wanted badly to brush her hair back and plant a kiss on her forehead, but knew not to and so didn't. It made her heart ache silently.

"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Shunsui asked, sounding very relieved as he made to sit in the chair beside Nanao's bed. Unohana smiled serenely at him, doing very well at masking the underlining sadness, and took several steps toward the door.

"I do." She stated, but was gone before he could ask what that was. Shunsui let it be, and turned to his Nanao, who was pale and shaking, and still looked so very, _very_ beautiful. She was a strong women. He was not surprised she would be fine. Perhaps she'd simply over worked herself.

.

Retsu had been shocked and scared to learn Nanao was spiritually inclined when she had received the letter from her caregiver in the Rukongai a little over a hundred years ago. The place was in a bad district, but she had all the faith in the world in the family she'd left her daughter to, when hollows began attacking them because of Nanao, Retsu knew she couldn't subject her friends to that, and more on her mind, she couldn't let Nanao be hurt. Still, the news had been unexpected. The odds of such a thing were impossibly small, much like Nanao's birth had been. Simply, children born of Shinigami and the Living were not heard of - as Nanao had been - and the very few cases Restu had found of those instances where they were, the children were supposed to be born into the world of the living, as Kurosaki Ichigo had been. If any spiritual pressure was to be had, it would be in death. But Nanao had been born dead and with no indication at all of reiatsu at the time.

The only conclusion Unohana could come to then, was that something had given Nanao reiatsu when she was young and living in the Rukongai. . . and now whatever power she had had - substantial and amazing as it was - was leaving her.

With a sigh the division four captain made a decision; she would need to tell Juushiro about this, and hope that he could help her.

* * *

><p><em>Well, I've had this idea for a very long, because I think Unohana and Nanao are very similar, and they make the very cutest family - Unohana, Nanao, and Yamamoto xD. . . However, this story is actually not about the family aspect so much as a lot of people's pasts. <em>

_ :P So I just wanted to try and write it out. Tell me, would y'all like it if I continued this story? I'm still iffy about if I want to or not. _

_Review with your answer. :)_


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach**

* * *

><p><strong>Relations (Name Will Probably Change)<strong>

_Shunsui/Nanao and Unohana/Ukitake_

Unohana left the fourth division a little after nine that evening and was at the thirteenth several minutes later. She hoped Juushiro would still be awake, and when she entered to the bickering of the two third seats they promptly told her that yes, he was. It was not surprising, Ukitake Juushiro loved his third seats with a passion Unohana herself held for those quirky members who invaded her division, but when those two were on a tangent, no one in the thirteenth slept.

What was surprising was that Shunsui was also present.

"Retsu!" Both men greeted when she walked into the captain's office. They were situated out on the deck, which was in view upon walking into the office if both doors were open. Shunsui with semi-drunken content-ness, Juushiro with an unidentifiable fondness. She smiled politely and nodded.

"Join us?" Juushiro asked.

"I would love to." Came her even response. The men made room on the porch overlooking the garden behind Juushiro's office, and poured her a cup of sake. Unohana knew it was only a matter of time before Shunsui passed out - that is, if he continued to drink as he was - or leave in order to check on his fukutaichou. She wasn't too concerned with which occurred, only that when it did she would be free to talk with Juushiro about what had been plaguing her mind. In the mean time, the three fell into easy conversation.

Both Juushiro and Shunsui were intelligent men - despite what most of the general population's opinions were of Shunsui - and both were apt to understanding the nature of their fellow shinigami. They were also not so naive as to miss the slight strain in the movements and mannerisms of their female counterpart. Unohana was the definition of elegance and ease. Neither man was prone to over looking anything that seemed to make the most sensible of all captains uneasy, and they shared a worried glance at the weariness that surrounded their friend.

"Are you alright Retsu?" Shunsui ventured. Her response was a smile that was more a threat to let the matter drop. He smiled nervously and decided that that was his cue to leave his friends to themselves. With a flourish of his pink haori he made to dismiss himself.

"I think I'll go check on my Nanao-chan." He stated. "She'll miss me by now I'm sure, she's very fond of me you know?" Juushiro rolled his eyes with a chuckle.

"That poor girl spends half her life in exasperation at your antics. I'd say her opinion is more that of tolerance than fondness." He teased. Shunsui looked very much like a kicked puppy.

"You wound me, Juu." He pouted.

"If you go to see her and she is asleep, don't wake her." Unohana cut in pleasantly. The implications of pain were not missed by Shunsui.

"Yare, yare, you both are so cynical of me." He whined.

"Only because you're more likely to do something stupid than not." Juushiro stated. Unohana nodded once, bring her cup to her lips and taking a small sip.

"Mean." Shunsui frowned before chuckling, a moment and one step in the direction of the fourth later and the division eight taichou was gone.

**.**

Nanao remember first waking up that morning, it'd been at her usual time, just before sunrise. The details of her passing out were substantially less clear, but she knew instantly that waking up now, glancing to a clock on the wall that was not her own and discovering it was nearly midnight, that she was not at the eighth, but the fourth.

She figured as much, after all, she'd planned on making a trip to the fourth later in the day anyway. Her reiatsu had been going haywire for nearly a week and it was becoming increasingly harder to hide that fact. She was surprised her taichou hadn't picked up on it, but then, she'd been trying to keep it from him especially. What he didn't know about her was none of his concern. It was unprofessional, she reasoned, but under the facade really she just wanted to make sure that she could function without the crutch that her taichou had steadily tried to make himself.

Nanao was under no illusions that this illness was simply that, an illness. To verify her worst fear she closed her eyes, searching out the pool that was her usually violent reiatsu, for one so calm as Nanao appeared, her inner workings had always been far from controlled, a mass of movement that she'd found very soothing, almost exclusively because it reminded Nanao that she wasn't just a workaholic, she was also a warrior. It wasn't there, and even as her heart dropped to her stomach, Nanao could not deny that she was not surprised. She'd recognized the symptoms, when they'd first started appearing, out of a medical journal she'd read years ago. Just for the benefit of knowledge she also searched out her zanpakuto's voice. He was a distant hum in the background of her thoughts, and Nanao was forced to accept that it was only a matter of time before he, too, left her grasps.

'_I'll be forever present. . ._' She heard him whisper, and he said no more. She felt the sting in the back of her eyes that could only be the result of being disconnected from that part of her soul. She'd never been very reliant on her tanto, but that was not the case of its spirit, which had nearly always been a nag at her conscious, even when she wished otherwise.

"Nanao-chan?"

Nanao started, realizing belatedly that her room was not unoccupied, she sat up, turning toward the voice to her left.

"You should not be here sir." She stated primly, he feigned hurt, which she studiously ignored, and said "it must be very late, and we've got work tomorrow."

"I couldn't leave my Nanao-chan all alone in the fourth for a whole night!" He countered grinning down at her. Years of practice kept her from rolling her eyes, she glared pointedly. "Besides, you aren't going to work tomorrow, and what reason do I have to be there if you're not?" The command in his voice kept her from arguing the first point. She was a soldier first and foremost, and a solider who could not identify and obey a command ought not to be a soldier at all.

"Your logic is severally flawed, sir. Paperwork does not stop simply because I am not present, and it is _your _division. I am there to _support_ you, but you are supposed to be efficient even when I am not around." She half hopped he'd understand the underlined meaning. If her reiatsu did not return, and she was suspecting, given how it had left, that it probably wouldn't, she could not continue the life of a shinigami. The ache in her chest was painful and only doubly so when the fleeting look of hurt past her taichou's soft eyes.

"_Our_ division Nanao-chan." He stated. "It would be nothing without the both of us."

.

"And you haven't told Shunsui?" Juushiro asked when Unohana finished her account of Nanao's diagnoses.

"I suspect he's probably already noticed her lacking reiatsu." Retsu stated. "I have yet to determine whether he knows what this means. Though we both know he is smart, and he'll probably already have come to a few conclusions."

Juushiro nodded sadly, noting not for the first time that when Shunsui had first visited earlier in the evening he'd come with a very heavy look in his eyes, and when Juushiro had prompted for a reason, was told that it was something he didn't want to share quite yet, as it could possibly be nothing. . . though to be fair, where Nanao was concerned _nothing_ was nothing to Shunsui. He'd have to talk with his friend again very soon, but first:

". . .This isn't what has got you down?" Juushiro asked kindly. Retsu stared serenely into the distance at the koi pond near the thirteenth's fence. It was a beautiful place, but he rather thought she was doubly so.

"No." She admitted, "but it is a factor."

* * *

><p><em>Am I killing y'all with the complete lack of action? No worries, it'll be here soon. ^^;<em>

_I was pleasantly surprised to see only positive reviews for continuation last chapter. :P I promise I read your reviews, but my PM system is a bit fucked up right now and I'm not quite sure why. . . I'll respond when it's up and working though. Promise. :)_

_So again, I'm always curious to hear your thoughts ((especially because anyone who has read or is going to go read *hint hint* any of my other stuff will know that this style of writing is vastly different than what I've been doing before)) and of course, I'm always looking for corrections and such. So please leave me a review with both? :D_


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach**

* * *

><p><strong>Relations (Name Will Probably Change)<strong>

_Shunsui/Nanao and Unohana/Ukitake_

Nanao sighed, running a hand over her forearm to try to give herself some comfort. She shouldn't have been surprised, knowing it was only a matter of time.

Honestly, two weeks had been longer than she'd all together expected, she figured her captain was probably partially to blame for that. Now though, it'd been sent through. Kyoraku Taichou probably didn't even know yet. The paper had been stamped by Division One, bypassing the usual method of approval by the Taichou of the officer who was being reviewed.

Nanao set down the paper that had been held in the hand of the arm she rubbed. 'Notice of Position Release' Was written in large red font. Below it was a line, 'Due to forces which impair the following party _Ise Nanao _from completing the duties assigned as a seated officer of the Gotei 13 the party will hence forth be stripped of her title _Fukutaichou_, and moved to the ranks of _Unseated. . ._' It continued on, stating the duties that she could no longer preform and instructing her on the duties of her new position, her reassignment to the ninth division and her eviction from the eighth. Eighth division was over capacity, ninth was not, the letter had informed. A fukutaichou was needed in the eight, but no more members were necessary. It left her feeling numb, she looked for the comfort of her zanpakuto, but he was no longer able to speak, instead humming pathetically in the back of her mind. _The one time I could stand to have him talking._

Nanao sighed, setting down the paper. It couldn't be helped, she supposed. She'd planned on taking a leave of absence if she wasn't stripped of her position, hoping to resolve the issue, hoping to see if it was _possible_ to reacquire her reiatsu, hoping to return to normality. In the event that she was demoted to an unranked officer of the eighth she still planned for the leave. To be reassigned altogether threw a wrench in her plans, but she'd been meticulous, praying that it wouldn't happen, but preparing for it as well.

Nanao open the drawer at the bottom of her desk. Sitting inside, proper and orderly as everything else in it was, was an unsealed envelope. She withdrew it, opened it, and read what she'd written in it four days earlier. After skimming to make sure the wording was proper, and nothing needed to be altered she filled in three spaces. In the first blank she wrote _Division Nine,_ the second _Hisagi Shuuhei Fukutaichou_ and the last _Muguruma Kensei Taichou. _She signed her name at the bottom, replaced the letter and sealed it. The words 'Request for withdrawal from the Gotei 13' were the last words her eyes skimmed.

"Itou-san." She called into the hallway. A moment later a dark-haired girl walked into Nana- _No. _She reminded_, not mine anymore. -_The eighth division fukutaichou's office.

Eleventh seat Itou Satomi began to bow, but Nanao stood, stopping her with her hand.

"Don't." Nanao stated. "It is not necessary."

Nanao liked Itou Satomi just fine. If she'd made an effort to know any of her co-workers out of the office she thought she might like Satomi more than she liked most people. The girl was only about fifty years younger than herself and had been transferred out of the fourth at Nanao's request for more kido efficient officers. Admittedly, Nanao had been planning to receive an already seated officer when she sent the request, but Satomi was quick to learn and with Nanao's guidance had been seated a few months into her transfer. Which was efficient, just as Nanao liked it.

Satomi had turned out to become a project of sorts for Nanao based on her adequate kido skills, and later, something of a secretary. Now she didn't have that authority over the eleventh seat, so she was about to ask her a favor . . . as a friend.

"Itou-san, I no longer have the authority to ask of you what I am about to ask of you," Nanao began, and when the younger woman's mouth opened slightly she cut her off before she could say anything about what the statement meant, "however, I have known you for several years and consider you to be one of the most effective officers in the eighth division. As such, I'm asking a favor of you as someone I consider to be an . . . acquaintance with." It was strange, Nanao thought slightly, how it hadn't occurred to her how little friends she had other than her captain, his friends (who were her acquaintances more than anything) and Rangiku. She wondered what would happen if she couldn't regain her powers. Would her memory fade into nonexistence.

"I'd do any favor you asked of me Ise fukutai-"

"Nanao." Nanao stated. It hurt, that title was the biggest thing she'd ever had.

"Nanao-san." Satomi corrected numbly. Nanao nodded, turning to pick up the letter from the First, her sealed envelope, and a small, folded piece of paper. She handed the three to Satomi.

"The letter there I need delivered to Kyoraku Taichou, preferably not until tomorrow morning-" Nanao stated, pointing to the Soutaichou's letter. Satomi nodded. "This envelope should be delivered to Muguruma-Taichou of the ninth division. The sooner the better." Another nod. "And this note should be handed to Matsumoto fukutaichou of the tenth division. It would also be preferable to hold off giving it to her until tomorrow." A third nod, Satomi tucked the papers up her sleeve, Nanao had asked her about it once and had been shown a pouch sewn into the inner fabric of her uniform. A fine alteration. Nanao had approved.

"Nanao, what's this all about?" Satomi asked, but Nanao did not respond.

"Thank you Itou-san." She stated simply, and turned to walk down the corridor. Her possessions had been packed into boxes, and put into storage yesterday, all excluding her zanpakuto and a cloak which were tucked neatly in her own sleeve . . . and a hair clip, matching, in pattern, the pins in her captain's own hair.

Nanao wasn't a particularly sentimental person, but she found herself watch the roof where her captain slept as she exited the division. She'd promised him she'd stay indoors after much beating over the head with her tome and furiously glaring. He'd been absolutely against the idea of her being out of sight,or out of earshot where he could not hear her breathing. Not being able to sense her reiatsu seemed to be hurting him as much as she'd tried to deny it was hurting her not to feel his. For the past two weeks he'd also been making it a point to sleep outside of her quarters until she'd finally gotten fed up with tripping over him on the way to the office in the morning and agreed to let him sleep on the tatami floor. Getting him to nap on the roof today had been a fight that eventually ended when she finally admitted even his tightly restraint reiatsu was making it hard for her to breathe and concentrate at once. The look he gave her was heart-wrenching, but he'd agreed.

_"Nanao-chan can't leave the barracks though!"_

She wondered what was worse, breaking his rule, or her breaking heart.

.

When one did not have reiatsu, or had very weak reiatsu, as Nanao currently did, most other shinigami tended to not notice their movements, which was good given that Nanao was trying to leave the Seireitei as unnoticed as possible. An unfortunate aspect was that Nanao was dealing, for the first time in a very long time, with the suffocating effects of being close to so many spiritually inclined bodies that by the time she reached the northern Rukongai gate she was panting hard and cursing every deity in existence that most Shinigami were too stupid to suppress their power. She'd have fixed that if she'd known about it sooner. They were a hazard to themselves and everyone they encountered. It was basic stuff one learned in the academy; you don't go flaunting your reiatsu unless you plan on attracting enemies. The gate keeper nodded as she exited into the Rukongai, making her way to the seventy-second district. Her zanpakuto as close as she could get it to her fingertips without drawing it.

She needed to find a man named Soto Sanji and be prepared to die in that confrontation.

.

"Kyoraku Taichou!" Satomi hollered the following morning. Her taichou was haggard looking, roaming the hallways. He glanced at her. The eleventh seat . . . what was her name again?

"Yes?" He asked, he tried to force a light smile, but given the look on the girl's face, guessed he probably hadn't quite succeeded. "Have you by chance seen my Nanao-chan?" Shunsui asked when it became apparent he wasn't fooling this girl.

"Er. . ." The girl responded, glancing to the left before she reached into her sleeve. Shunsui's hopes raised a little with the action. Perhaps his Nanao-chan had run an errand last night? He'd hold her until death if that were the case. She disobeyed an order. Nanao had never done such a thing. He'd though it'd be okay when he _ordered _her and she agreed to stay in the barracks, it was the only thing that had quelled his nerves enough for her to push him to the roof for his nap, but when he'd come in in the evening, rather than going to his home which was not in the barracks, but to her quarters where he'd been sleeping lately, she was not there to let him in, and when he opened the doors anyway, sick with fear, he discovered that she wasn't there at all. He hadn't slept at all, had went to Juushiro to ask if he'd seen her and then to request his help in the search. By morning neither had come up with anything, and they had returned to their divisions, Shunsui with the vain hope that maybe she'd returned at some point in the morning. He looked back to the eleventh seat, she'd just withdrawn a piece of paper.

"Nanao-san asked that I give this to you this morning, sir." She stated, her eyes steeled with the determination of a mission that might end in her death, and Shunsui was immediately caught off-guard by the use of such an improper address toward _Nanao_, who demanded propriety in nearly every aspect of her life. He took the letter, opening it. The red header made his heart drop, and as he read further into it fury gripped his soul. His reiatsu flared and Satomi was pushed to the ground by the force, training by Nanao herself had taught the girl not to struggle in such circumstance and she watched in horror as her taichou's normally soft eyes hardened. It was only when he opened his mouth to ask her a question and found her eyes hollow and unfocused that he realized what he'd done and forced himself to calm again.

"Is this all she gave you?" His words were forced into evenness and he offered her a hand. Satomi took is shakily.

"No." She gasped. "She had an envelope that I delivered to the Ninth last night, and a note I delivered to Matsumoto-fukutaichou this morning." Shunsui nodded.

"Come with me." He stated and took a step into shunpo. Satomi knew better than to protest.

* * *

><p><em>Next chapter begins all the excitement for those of you who are becoming more annoyed with me. :P Should I combine chapter one and two? I'm thinking I might have split them awkwardly. Tell me your thoughts. Anyways, sorry for the slowness, but next chapter will hopefully pay off. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, those of you who I can respond to will get a reply from me soon. :D You're all so nice with your review I always get waaay too happy when I see that I've gotten a new one. ^^;<em>

_Enjoy!_

_Next chapter: Nanao gets in a fight, Ukitake talks to Unohana and Shunsui has some choice words with the Soutaichou. _


End file.
